TheNews Blog

The Perfect Mind Game

Ashar Zaidi on 25, Jan 2012 | 8 Comments | in Category: Sports Sprit

After being Ajmaloided in Dubai, do the English lions have enough courage to roar back?

 

 

 

Cricket is won in minds, not on the field

 

 

 

The legendry Wasim Akram once said,

 

 

 

“Cricket is a mind game, keep on reading your opponents’ mind and do exactly the opposite, victory will have no place to run”.

 

 

 

That’s the beauty with Pakistan cricket; year after year it has produced highly skilled craftsmen who have performed miracles in the field, and while doing so, also mastered the art of mind games and speech wars. How to rattle your rivals with the smartly worded warnings that would capture headlines and in the process wreak havoc in their camp? This is a skill that has been mastered and then passed on generation to generation by the Pakistanis.

 

 

 

I remember watching a television clip from the 80’s Thunder Down Under clash where Abdul Qadir would loft the ball in front of the camera and warn the Aussies of his surprise with a cunning smile. A perfectly pitched mental googly that helped Qadir create problems for the Aussie’s on their own soil. Many years later, the same confidence shattering skill can be seen in Ajmal. I won’t be surprised if Ajmal someday reveals that it was Wasim, Waqar, Aquib or maybe the maestro Qadir himself that sharpened Ajmal on these lines.

 

 

 

The English dislike for spin is no hidden fact. They have invested all their technological edges and barrage of coaches just to learn how to play Ajmal. But even before they could wipe off their sweat, Ajmal injected the worst fear in their hearts with the warning of a ‘Mythical Teesra’. The result? Confidence of the English batsmen swirled away even before the first ball was bowled.

 

 

 

What in the world is the ‘Teesra’? Did Ajmal use it and does it even exist? I guess we will need to keep guessing, but one thing is for sure, the mind game played by Ajmal did the trick once again. Saeed Ajmal, now the highest-ranked spinner in the world, has England just where he wants them. They are talking about him, analyzing him, and even fretting over him, while Ajmal is pampering himself with ayurvedic massages and basking in the desert sun.

 

 

 

Déjà vu in Dubai

 

 

 

If you are a Pakistani supporter or a supporter of good cricket, then the 3 day test in Dubai will be hard to forget. I had written off England’s chances in the series in my previous blog, but that they would capsize in just three days was beyond my wildest imagination. Winning the toss on a placid track and batting first, what else could have Strauss wished for? However if your top six batsmen manage only 143 runs in 12 innings against an unforgiving Pakistani attack, only God can help you. It would be fair to say that the shock-wave Ajmal sent through the batting spine on day one was something England will never be able to recover from.

 

 

 

English bowlers on the other hand did a splendid job; they were not gifted with a class act like Ajmal but they still managed to restrict Pakistan to 338 on a moribund surface. Graeme Swann did his part by grabbing 4/107, while Broad 3 and Anderson 2 chipped in with their efforts. Sadly, it was their batsmen that spilled the beans.

 

 

 

So the million dollar question, where does England go from here?

 

 

 

The formula is very simple: hard work and belief in their abilities. Coach Andy Flower wasted little time before getting his boys back in the nets. Following the humiliating drubbing in Dubai, Flower put them through a series of punishing training drills just to remind them that their number 1 position cannot be taken for granted. Trying to over-come their fear of spin, England is giving the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn, a hefty workout just like its other players. With the beginning of the Abu Dhabi test, England needs to work out how to deal with Pakistan’s spin triplet, both technically and mentally.

 

 

 

For me the biggest disappointment is and will be the maverick Kevin Pietersen. He might have scored two double centuries last year, but his statistics with Pakistan are lowest against any outfit. Managing a sluggish 690 runs from 21 innings at a listless avg of 32.86, Pakistan know KP’s weakness too well. To top that is his animosity towards spin. Flower would do himself good by resting KP and bringing in the gusty Ravi Bopara, who is a much better player of spin.

 

 

 

England also needs to understand that tested recipes do not fit in every dish. The idea of playing four seamers’ might have worked on greener surfaces, but the same recipe caused indigestion on the Dubai track. Exposing Chris Tremlett on such a surface meant wasting two good talents, Chris himself and the talented Monty Panesar. With Swann grabbing four from one end, Monty could have exerted much needed pressure from the other, denying Pakistani tail-enders easy runs.

 

 

 

What to do with Ajmal’s Doosra and possible Teesra?

 

 

 

Do what Prior and Trott did, pick his line, watch his grip, define your shorts and play sensibly. Both these batsmen demonstrated that Ajmal is surely destructive, but he is certainly not un-playable. It’s that gnawing uncertainty with Ajmal’s deliveries that has kept the batsmen guessing which way is the ball going to bounce and where will it spin? They must be scrutinizing over his footage to answer the ever hunting question, that is how to play that imminent ‘Doosra’, knowing little that the answer might not be lying in their laptops, but rather in their minds.

 

 

 

Pakistan’s 3 other Idiots

 

 

 

Much has been talked, written and read about Ajmal, he was able to get into the English minds and engineer their destruction, but Pakistan had other acts to highlight. The first notable was one was Hafiz. After bulldozing England for 192, Pakistan needed a steady partnership to grip the match. Hafiz rose up to the demand and played a watchful yet classy innings to deny England any advantage. His 88 off 164 balls took the game further away from their reach. While a century could have helped him share headlines with Ajmal, a misjudged sweep against Swann swapped away that opportunity however his contribution remained vital in the win.

 

 

 

When Broad removed Umar Gul early on the second morning, the score board read 289/8 and the balance seemed to be tilting towards England, but Adnan Akmal was steady at the other end and kept hopes alive. His impudent 61 converted a slender lead into a substantial one for Pakistan. Add seven brilliant catches to it and that would put a big smile on his sibling keeper. English batsmen lost their nerves facing Ajmal; imagine life keeping gloves on his mysteries.  This third member of the Akmal clan has definitely beefed up much needed security behind the stumps.

 

 

 

Then it was Umar Gul’s turn to draw last blood. After a wicket-less first innings his vitality in the presence of spinners might have raised questions. But Umar, with his tough guy reputation, mowed through the top order and left the English fighting for survival. With his swift and timely burst, Gul cemented the notion that a good bowler will perform on any type of wicket.

 

 

 

Lots of Cricket still Left

 

 

 

Have no doubts, the pride of the English Lion is hurt and it will do all it can to strike back. Even after a huge loss, it would be foolish to write them off. They know their potential and have overcome setbacks before, but do they possess enough will power to overturn the desert storm? Only their performance can provide an answer.

 

 

 

Pakistan has tamed the Lion at the Dubai show, and I see them whipping the big cat again in Abu Dhabi, but they too are un-predictable and somewhere in my heart I have this fear of an unseen catastrophe. Pakistan has the ability to trigger carnage in one match and yet switch to their self-destructive mode in the very next. Just rewind yourself to last summer where they pounded West-Indies in the opening test but immediately succumbed to defeat in the next. This remains an un-explained vulnerable nature that forces even most ardent fans to shut their eyes. 

 

 

 

Both teams have a lot to prove and the series remains far from over. Although the stands at Dubai gave haunted looks the ground remained action-packed and generated a result. Let’s hope for far more exciting results but not just in three days, after all the beauty of test cricket lies in five hard fought days.

You might also like: